Signapse secures £2M Seed for AI Sign Language translation

Signapse, a generative AI Sign Language translation software company, today announced the closing of a new seed funding round of £2 million with £1.5 million from investors and £500k from the UK Government. 

The company uses generative AI to achieve photo-realism and accuracy to provide greater accessibility for the Deaf community. 

Over the past two years, Signapse software has created 5,000 BSL train announcements daily throughout the UK, as well as delivering over 4,000 manual BSL translations for clients in the website and video markets. 

More recently, Signapse has delivered Deaf accessibility to transport companies such as LNER Train Stations in the UK, and CVG Airport in the US. 

“I couldn’t be more excited and proud about this next stage in our growth. It is a landmark opportunity, a once in a lifetime moment, to build a transformative product,” says Sally Chalk, CEO and Co-Founder at Signapse.

“This is an important chapter for Signapse, where we can expand our AI messaging from limited domains of discourse such as Transport to more open ended markets such as Website and Video Translation.”, says Ben Saunders, CTO and Co-Founder at Signapse.

This new round of funding will be used to improve Deaf accessibility through building unconstrained translation for British Sign Language (BSL). 

Specifically, the company will focus on:

• Expanding into the Video Translation market to improve Deaf accessibility globally
• Building unconstrained translation for BSL with the ability to translate from any English sentence into BSL using AI
• Improve the quality of Signapse AI-generated Sign Language Videos

Soulmates Ventures and Deeptech Seed Fund led the funding, with participation from other investors, including the Royal Association for Deaf people, Empirical Ventures, CEAS Investments, and FSE Group.

“We at Soulmates Ventures are proud and excited to be a part of the Signapse endeavour in building unconstrained generative AI sign language translation. Their innovative solution is reflecting the daily challenges and needs of the Deaf people.” 

“We are looking forward to supporting the Signapse team through our acceleration programme to amplify their distinctive real-time solution and enhance accessibility in transport, mass media, TV, streaming services and others for the Deaf community globally”, says Michal Sikyta, Investment Director at Soulmates Ventures.